Near the end of the convention there were two resolutions that Ó Brádaigh strongly opposed. The first would allow the IRA to attack British warships when they came into 26-county ports. The second would allow the IRA to attack British forces when they were found in the Twenty-Six Counties. It was understood that if British soldiers pursued the IRA across the border, IRA members could defend themselves. The second resolution would allow the IRA to ambush British forces along concession roads, which run from the Twenty-Six Counties into the Six Counties and back out to the Twenty-Six Counties and so on. British forces were using them, and some people in the IRA wanted to stage ambushes in the 26-county sections of the roads. Ó Brádaigh was opposed because he feared this would draw the IRA into open conflict with the southern security forces and the Dublin government. Public opinion would support the government, which would come down hard on the movement. It is an unusual army that takes votes on its tactics, but the IRA is a voluntary organization. Both resolutions were passed.
Skuse was elected to the IRA Executive Council and Sehn Cronin and Ruairí Ó Brádaigh were unanimously elected by the Executive to membership on the Army Council. The council then re-elected Cronin as chief of staff. Ó Brádaigh disagreed enough with the two resolutions that he declined membership on the council and did not take a headquarters staff position. He did remain in the army. However, two days after the convention, Cronin was spotted by police, refused to answer questions, and ended up back in Mountjoy. The Army Executive approached Ó Brádaigh and asked him to be chief of staff. He was interested, but he was concerned about the two resolutions. Ruairí Ó Brádaigh is a detail person; he does not play loose with facts and he does not ignore procedures. A majority of the convention delegates had voted for the two resolutions. If he was to be chief of staff, he wanted an extraordinary IRA convention that would reverse them. The Executive felt that his request was impractical and suggested that he pretend they had never been passed. He turned them down. There is a pragmatic side to his approach to detail. He knew that at some point his authority might be challenged on either resolution. If a unit proposed an ambush and cited the resolutions, he would be caught in the middle and it could result in a dispute like the one caused by the Curragh mass escape. Ultimately, a compromise was reached. Security issues precluded another general convention, but there would be four provincial conventions (Leinster, Munster, Connacht, and Ulster) for the general convention delegates. At the provincial conventions, Ó Brádaigh’s position would be explained and delegates would be asked to agree to suspend the resolutions. The delegates accepted the suspension and Ó Brádaigh went ahead as chief of staff. Although he was not a member of the Army Council, the IRA Constitution allows the chief of staff (and the adjutant general and quartermaster) to participate in meetings but without the right to vote. He attended council meetings and had an important voice in their deliberations.
Cronin, a professional journalist, was editor of The United Irishman prior to his arrest in October 1958. The paper, a monthly, had a circulation of 120,000 copies. Sein Ó Brádaigh had replaced him as editor in 1958. In 1960, Ruairí Ó Brádaigh replaced him as editor. Like Cronin, he carefully organized his movements and his time. The Offenses Against the State Act precluded easy entry and exit from the paper’s office in Dublin. Cronin had set up couriers who picked up information at the office and delivered it to a drop house or returned it from the drop house to the office. Ó Brádaigh adopted his system. The United Irishman, a monthly, was put together during two periods of intense activity that required Ó Brádaigh’s presence in Dublin or nearby twice a month. Early in the month, he and his assistants would set a framework for the next edition; later in the month they would put it together. A group of regular contributors were assigned topics. In the office, the assistants went through the daily papers, such as the Irish Press, the Irish Times, and the Belfast Telegraph, and clipped relevant articles. Their other primary source of information was Irish radio; Irish television began broadcasting on New Year’s Eve 1961.
Even before Ó Brádaigh resumed the role chief of staff and became editor of The United Irishman, the movement was facing the 26-county local elections that were scheduled for June 1960. This election, in retrospect, was especially important because it signaled the beginning of a broader politics for Sinn FCin. In 1955, seven Sinn FCiners were elected to county councils; unlike the party’s Leinster House candidates, these candidates took their seats. The party’s philosophy was that participation in local government made Republicans more aware of everyday political issues facing the Irish people. This action was complemented by discussions that addressed issues of social and economic justice in the Curragh and in Crumlin Road Prison, Belfast. The discussions were part of a more general awareness that there were serious problems with the Irish economy. Ó Brádaigh’s comments at the rally in Roscommon in May, which mentioned problems with employment, emigration, and housing, were indicative of this development. On a personal level, he was very aware of economic hardship and poverty. In his early years, when his father was a councilor, people would call at the house, seeking help. He attended a rural primary school (Melview), where he mixed with the children of small farmers and agricultural laborers. In the movement and while canvassing for Sinn Ftin, he met people from all walks of life. Sinn Ftin’s involvement in local politics, the discussions in the Curragh, and personal interest in the welfare of people raised his awareness of social and economic issues.
Over the centuries, Republicans have never viewed physical force as the only method of bringing about the Republic. The prominence of physical force has waxed and waned over time. The 1916 Easter Rising was almost exclusively a military affair. In 1919–1922, the movement combined physical force with more traditional political agitation, which led to a partial Republic. In the 1930s, socialists such as Peadar O’Donnell, George Gilmore, and Frank Ryan called for radical social and economic reform; Ryan went to Spain as part of the International Brigade. In this period of rabid anticommunism, linking socialism with Republicanism led to disagreements, splits, and factions. The people who rebuilt the movement after the 1940s-Magan, Mac Curtiin, McLogan, Larry Grogan, and others-were incredibly wary of involvement in political agitation and did not want to be smeared with any association with communism. By the late 1950s, their influence was on the wane and events had demonstrated that the movement needed a broader focus. Sinn Ftin’s success in 1955 and 1957 contributed to a push for a broader agenda. This broadening was reflected in Sinn Ftin’s manifesto for the southern local elections in 1960. It began:
The objectives of Sinn Féin are: to break the connection with England; to end the entire British Imperial system in Ireland; to end poverty and insecurity; to abolish the existing partition institutions of Government in Ireland, and to replace them by a National Government having complete and effective jurisdiction over the entire territory of the Nation.
A central issue was social welfare: “The need for the ’dole,’ home assistance, free milk schemes, children’s allowances, health services administered through dispensaries, etc., is mostly due to unemployment and low wages.” The party called for a comprehensive scheme of national health insurance. Sinn Féin did relatively well with this program in the southern local elections in 1960; sixteen people were elected to ten different county councils and fourteen people were elected to town councils. The results followed a pattern that still holds: Sinn Féin polled well along the border and in the west. Eight candidates were elected in five border counties: Cavan, Donegal, Leitrim, Monaghan, and Sligo. John Joe McGirl was elected to the Leitrim County Council, and Seamus McElwain was elected to the Monaghan County Council. In the west, Sinn FCin elected candidates in Clare, Cork, Galway, and Kerry. Paddy Ruane was returned to the Galway County Council.
In spite of, or perhaps because of, their modest but important electoral success, Irish police harassed Republicans on a continuous basis. Soon after Ó Brádaigh was released from Mountjoy, May Brady Twohig’s home was raided. Ó Brádaigh had been a T D for more than four years and was not wanted for any crime, yet he had to watch his movements carefully. On the evening of December 8th, on a visit to prominent Republican Paddy Fitzgerald in Midleton in County Cork, he was traveling in a car with his adjutant general, Martin Shannon of Dublin. Shannon stopped at a gate, Ó Brádaigh got out to open it, and there was a shout of “Halt!” Police officers hiding in ditches